Japan forfeited its final round-robin game Friday afternoon at the BTK Tires & OK Tire World Women’s Curling Championship at CN Centre, after two members of the team tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the day.
The remaining players in the Japanese team, despite negative COVID tests, decided to not play their game Friday afternoon against South Korea to lessen the possibility of spreading the virus to other opponents.
South Korea will win the game by default and will improve its record to 8-3, with one more game to play tonight against undefeated Switzerland.
Japan played in the morning draw with just three players Friday against Switzerland and lost 11-3. Japanese skip Ikue Kitazawa, second Minori Suzuki and lead/vice-skip Hasumi Ishigooka, as well as Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni, all wore masks during the game.
The WCF did not identify the Japanese players who tested positive but third Seina Nakajima and alternate Chiaki Matsumura were not at CN Centre with the team for the Switzerland game
Japan is the second team to become infected with COVID. On Saturday, it was confirmed that Scottish skip Rebecca Morrison and alternate Fay Henderson had tested positive for the virus and on Sunday two additional members of the team had positive tests. As a result, the Scottish team was forced to withdraw from the tournament
All teams scheduled to play Scotland will receive a default win.
